Now With More German: Tribes’ ‘Marksman’ Update

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The Tribes: Ascend updates keep on rolling out, and so too does evidence of Hi-Rez’s continued commitment to filling this game with strange stuff. Sure, they’ve already added disco, but now there are costumes. And elaborate backdrops. And German. But anyway, as long as the game keeps being good, we should not question the nature of these updates. And there are some pretty intriguing new toys in this update, so here we are.

The new update largely focuses on the Sentinel, with a heavier hitting but slower sniper, more accurate shotgun, and – in the leading-cause-of-devious-smirks-the-world-over category – a powerful Motion Mine that only detonates when players are moving over it at high speeds.

Soldier and Pathfinder, meanwhile, get a little Spinfusor-flavored love with a secondary weapon version and a momentum-based “Blinksfusor,” respectively. For the Soldier, this means assault rifle/Spinfusor is now an option – or Spinfusor/Spinfusor, which is what I immediately thought of until Hi-Rez retroactively stole my joke. To spite them, I’ll now suggest a Spinfusor/Spinfusor/Twinfusor combo for when the Soldier grows a third arm in Update 119. Retroactively steal that.

Right then, the Blinksfusor. It’s a really cool idea, though I think Hi-Rez may have botched the explanation a bit. In short, its projectile speed is based 100 percent on your movement speed and direction – as opposed to the 50 or so percent of a normal Spinfusor. So, in theory, you don’t need to lead your shots as much. Now, Hi-Rez says it’s momentum-based, but that sounds more like velocity to me. Or, at least, that’s how I understand it. But then, I also spent the first 12 years of my life thinking physics was a food.

At any rate, new things! Go try them. Or just read patch notes here, because the mind is the most powerful weapon of all. Hi-Rez should probably nerf it.

That means shot in the head, not a gaming headshot. Headshot isn’t an actually word in English, its a term used by gamers etc. it’s impossible to quantify it in German if it doesn’t even exist in English. Some people just like trying to correct people.

Well you can use it either as “jmd. per Kopschuß hinrichten” or as “jmd. starb durch einen Kopfschuß”. So I don’t quite see the problem. But hey we both seem to enjoy trying to be smart on the internet ;)
And is it not the beauty of RPS that we can do so in a civilized manner?

Naw, the rifle is pretty ok what with having only 3 ‘shots’ in a mag. Sure it gives *good* SENs the extra 65 damage on the first shot but it’s less forgiving than the Phase Rifle for 99% of the playerbase – most can’t hit the broad side of the Ships on Crossfire anyways.
The other two SEN gadgets – the shotgun and the mine are just plain bad.

What’s really more annoying was me trying to play some pubs yesterday and having 10+ snipers in every match. Even had a genuine Star Wars moment, me going ~300kph with the flag and lasers coming from everywhere after me.

No, the new rifle is not fine at all, it’s pretty much a direct upgrade from the already powerful Phase rifle. Why? Because most people reload the Phase after two to three shots anyway, as you tend to wait for your energy to refill after a couple of shots, unless you are targeting a capper with very low HP.

It deals roughly 12% more damage per shot, which is quite a lot, especially for PTHs with a max of 900 HP.

I also feel giving SENs a shotgun, which is a powerful hitscan weapon, was a dumb move. A sniper should not be so strong at close ranges. I actually tried playing roaming D as a SEN with the SAP20, the shotgun and Quick Draw – it wrecks shit up, and more so than it should.

Competitive Tribes:Ascend Sniper here! My suggestion: Don’t play CTF for a couple days unless it’s PUGs or something. Played round on a public match to get XP for the new rifle, each team had 3 snipers.

That said, the new rifle is better in pretty much every way. It drains more energy but it does more base damage. It has less ammo, but it reloads fast and 3 shots are plenty. The initial thought was, it takes 2 shots to kill a capper which is no change from before. In practice, though, I’m now much more deadly killing offense, and the capper now needs to grab with 8%-ish more health. If you can hit 2 shots in a row, rage changes are actually a buff to sniper.

Haven’t tried the shotgun yet outside of training mode. Seemed like a valid sidegrade, not an upgrade. But that’s because the Sniper SMG was already crazy powerful. Swag Blaster’s still the best if you can hit with it.

I’m from Bavaria. That’s near Germany.
That said, while I was born there and live there, I cannot speak Bavarian, and I have never worn that traditional clothing.
On the other hand, I refuse to refer to “Semmeln” as “Brötchen”, as they do in Hochdeutsch. Abominable.

For the same reasons people imagine Americans with cowboy hats and revolvers? Or all Britons as cross-dressing Terry Jones? I’m seriously going to be disappointed if I visit England and the streets aren’t full of men in drag talking in falsetto cockney accents.

I don’t know about you, but I actually think they should remove the sentinels or change them drastically.
Not because they are OP or anything, but because they don’t fit in a speed-focused game like Tribes.
Also, hitscan is so lame.

You know I find hilarious?
How these guys can continue to put out update after update.
Making this game simply better and better all the time.
Keeping it interesting, working on balance..
And it’s free to play..
Yet theres so many paid for games, owned by rich as hell companies..
And they seem to struggle to even bother fixing bugs that more or less destroy the game entirely.
And then trickled out content and demand more and more money.

Yea, I love these guys and this game is easily one of my most played and most enjoyed games this year. I take breaks, come back and theres so much new content and sucked right back in. Even the maps have changed and become better, faster, more intuitive and balanced.. I’m simply impressed.
That and it runs on laptops that were not even designed to play games, so many of my friends have been able to sign up and join our team, our epic arena matches.. So good! My buddy who loves sniping is going to cream over this one. GO TRIBES! WOOO!

TBH as somebody that actually drank the kool-aid on this one and paid money (which I almost never do with F2P games), I was extremely disappointed with the game. The matchmaking is awful. Just because I reach level 10 does not mean I’m capable of playing with players > lvl 20. Also trying to play offense without being an absolute pro at surfing is an exercise in frustration. There will be heavies that literally stand on the flag and assaults that simply camp the base even if the flag is gone. I eventually got tired of the frustration and quit. Just had to counter your jubilant post so people know that it’s not that fun for everyone that tries it.

I just tried to get back into Tribes this week and almost immediately gave up. I stoped playing somewhere after the Brut Update (although i think it was the first balanced update, uhm, up to that date…) So many new weapons, new maps, and did even the old maps change or am I just a confused old man?
But finally two Spinfusors for my SLDR and what is a Twinfusor? I am intrigued. Overall the update sounds awesome. Except:Why the smeg would you encourage Llamas?!?! Seriously do we really want ti make this a legitimate strategy?